Journey North GrayWhale Migration

Two Sides of the Issue: Low Frequency Active (LFA) Sonar
Last updated May 5, 2008

When environmental groups gave evidence of LFA sonar harm to whales, federal courts made the Navy restrict use of LFA. But that wasn't the end of the story. A back-and-forth battle followed:

In 2007 the Navy again sought permission to use more LFA. The Navy also wanted to quit or cut back on the safety measures in effect from earlier court rulings. In September 2007 the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Navy could go ahead and use high-power sonar during exercises off the Southern Calilfornia coast, despite threats to whales and other marine mammals.

On Nov. 13, 2007 A federal appeals court restored the earlier ban on the U.S. Navy's use of submarine-hunting sonar in upcoming training missions off Southern California until the Navy adopts better safeguards for whales, dolphins and other marine mammals. The order allows the Navy to continue its current exercises, but will force the Pentagon to devise ways to ensure that marine mammals are not harassed or injured by powerful sonic blasts during a series of training missions slated to begin in January 2008. Those precautions include reducing sonar power at night, when whales are not easily spotted. The precautions will have to be approved by the same federal court in Los Angeles that ordered the initial sonar ban in August.

In May 2008 a federal appeals court rejected the White House's unprecedented effort to exempt the U.S. Navy from federal environmental laws during training with dangerous mid-frequency sonar off the Southern California coast. The three-judge panel upheld a lower court order -- won by NRDC in January — requiring the Navy to put safeguards in place that would protect whales and other marine mammals from needless injury and death. In another court victory, a federal court in San Francisco has issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Navy from deploying its dangerous low-frequency active (LFA) sonar system across 75 percent of the world's oceans. The injunction will ban LFA training in sensitive marine habitat, including the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument.

You can learn more by doing a Web search for LFA sonar.